Chambord’s Natural Marvels: A Year in Europe’s Oldest Enclosed Forest | AUTUMN-WINTER | SLICE WILD

Built in the 16th century by François the 1st, a king deeply in love with nature and culture, Chambord’s castle is one of the most singular treasures that the French Renaissance has left us.

But Chambord is also the largest and the most ancient enclosed forest park in Europe. In the majestic gardens of the castle live an incredibly rich flora and fauna. With its 5440 acres of forest, animals now rule the Chambord Kingdom.

Many rare species such as ospreys, salamanders, black storks, wildcats abound and live in a natural state. With its variety of trees and its many different types of mammals, amphibians and birds, the park is pionner in wildlife conservation and houses a unique biodiversity.
In a blue-chip wildlife documentary, renowned director Laurent Charbonnier takes us into a microcosm of the European forest, for a whole year, and captures the beauty of an untamed environment as the seasons come and go.

Documentary: Nature’s Palace
Directed by: Laurent Charbonnier
Production: MC4

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[Music] [Music] hunting in architecture inspired by his two passions the king built this Castle the largest in the lair and the most beautiful in France King Fran I first dreamed Up This Magnificent Freestone and construction Shambo [Music] Castle the castle stands on 5,440 acres of land and is surrounded by walls it’s a natural park where we can observe and protect a wide variety of [Music] species with its variety of trees and its many different types of mammals amphibians and birds shambor is a microcosm of the French [Music] forest in 1519 frosa the first decided to make this vast Salone property his hunting ground due to its abundance of game Deer wild BS and water foul 500 years later nothing has changed how however it’s now the animals that rule the Shambo Kingdom we spent a year observing Wildlife throughout the seasons in shambour this idelic setting embodies natural diversity in [Music] France a deer a bird a salamander or a B can exist here at Shambo as contentedly as at the heart of a wild forest people work carefully in order to maintain this unique natural [Music] [Music] habitat foxes for example have nothing to fear except perhaps getting struck by the hoof of a rutting deer We Begin our Shambo Adventure in Autumn when deer mating season is in full flow during rutting period the do who usually live serenely with their THS find themselves caught between battling mes the rat takes place in different areas and is always led by a dominant male he is the master of his territory and dominates his land young males in their Prime set out to overthrow him and take ownership of his [Music] herd here we find two willing contenders they are daring to take on the minent male and to battle him for his herd the male must be on guard and it is imperative that he protects his dough that are in heat as this only occurs for 36 hours a year the first Challenger is immediately countered by the largest tag two animals that weigh 150 to 200 kilos throw themselves against each each other in a ritual combat this type of battle is rare as they usually rely on deterrent postures and gestures that block [Music] confrontation it’s the height of rutting season most of the dough IR Heat and the males are on Peak form they have erogenous zones on the tip of the antlers and they rub them on the [Music] ground the victim torious stag marks out his terrain in order to prevent his opponents from approaching the do tried to escape the situation one of the two Stags decides to approach his opponent the dominant male has spotted him a game of hide and seek ensues between the do and the master who is determined to bring them back to the rutting area [Music] he eventually succeeds his herd is reunited and the enemy has been [Music] ousted the THS get caught up in the excitement of the action at four 5 months old it’s all a game for them as soon as the rat is finished they rejoin their mothers and head back into the twisting Labyrinth of the forest frostare the first indulged his passion for hunting on his land where animals run as freely as those in the forest a royal residence was therefore built for the king the palace grounds are the same size as the City of Paris and the 32 kilm wall that surrounds the land is the same distance as the highway that encircles Paris it is supervised by Pascal tivar the director of Shambo Heritage buildings sections of the wall often collapse and there must be repaired in order to keep poaches out the wool that was invisage by franois the now houses a unique biodiversity the real castle Jews gon Bruno director of natural heritage and several Foresters supervis the protection of the animals in the forest 80% of the 5,440 acre estate isn’t accessible to the public the forest Wildlife enjoys tranquility and ideal living conditions a veritable Noah Arc the land is inhabited by many rare species such as the wildcat [Music] the Shambo state is also used for animal restocking projects mountain sheep were on the brink of Extinction until they were introduced here in the 1950s and they now populate mountain ranges in the south of France [Music] as the cranes take flight over Salon we know that Autumn is in full flow the Foresters ensure that each of the areas are protected throughout winter the ponds must be taken care of hold [Applause] up you the Shambo ponds are emptied every 2 or 3 years they are cleaned and surplus fish are [Applause] removed unwanted fish species such as the catfish are removed [Music] once they have been sorted the fish is sold catfish is given to birds and wild BS there are 10 pwns in the Shambo Forest that date back to the Middle Ages the Earth was made up of sand and clay and the monks at the time decided to dig out carp breeding ponds the Park’s Wildlife wouldn’t be as extensive if it weren’t for these water pools gray herons tily roam the muddy expanses with the same Grace as the great white egrets as the last leaves cling to the branches trees that need to be failed on marked out by the Shambo supervision team who carefully verify the selection the Mart lers are equipped with state-of-the-art hammers calipers and spray paint and a pointer will know the diameter species and the height of the selected trees most of the Shambo Foresters have been there for many years and are very attached to the grounds they have learned how to preserve the forest resources whilst maintaining different areas of a variety of animals for example by cassing the trees where the deer roam 15,000 cubic M of wood are cut down each year by loggers who purchased the trees wood is also kept to use for heating the rooms that are open to the [Music] public a salamander that was dozing under a log escaped just in time Frost the first CH his emblem wisely it’s said that the salamander can withstand fire it symbolizes power over fire and therefore over man and the world the salamander has a role in the Shambo ecosystem but as Autumn closes in it searches a stone or tree stum to hibernate underneath blue tits robins and other song birds can only dream of hibernation nature dictates that they must endure winter cold and [Music] [Music] hunger during the winter season BS are warmed up by an inner fire the rot [Music] omnivores are well protected from freezing temperatures even when covered by a lay of snow the ground protects earthworms and [Music] slugs the castle stands gone in the park like a majestic ghost wearing a shroud were it not for costy restoration projects the castle would have been ruined by the 500 Winters that it has lived through Stones slates and chimney turrets have been repaired many times [Music] as well as frosa I other monarchs such as Henry II and Lou the 14th stayed for brief periods in the castle for hunts or parties but for most of the time the castle has stood empty the real Kings of shambor are those whose linage has never been wiped out the animals that continue to exist here feeding in Winter and especially in the snow is not easy for deer they survive on tree bark Bramble leaves and acorns winter brings about a post rutting season calm for the dough they live apart from the Stags with their FS [Music] apart from the occasional ball fight the Shambo animals live a stress-free existence as they have no Predators Castle life is Serene and tranquil and nature is preserved [Music] [Music] almost 200 different species of birds exist in chambor but in the winter they obliged to share the limited areas where they find water since the ponds were emptied 2 months ago this king fisher does not want his domain to be invaded he is well suited to his small Canal the calm shallow in clean Waters mean that he can easily identify fish a waiting Sandpiper will muddy his Waters winter certainly brings about change a fisheating robin now we’ve seen everything the gray Heron who up until this point was the king of the Shambo ponds is now reduced to fishing in a thimble the Heron spends most of the year in solitude until Mating Season where he finds a partner and they build a nest together in a tree alongside dozens of other pairs of herons he feasts on large fish that have been abandoned by man whilst the king fisher has a preference for small fish such as minnows skull pins or stickle back he swallows his prey head first in the direction of its scales the Heron isn’t a competitor in terms of fishing but the Kingfisher would prefer him to leave his area however the waiter must say as this is the only place for miles around where there are still a few fish [Applause] [Music] alri the Foresters have been mobilized for the Shambo trapping operation they are aiming to capture around 20 live deer a team is putting hangings in place that will prevent the animals from escaping [Music] the second team are putting Nets in place the [Music] traps the term falling into the Trap is derived from this [Music] it resembles a hunt beaters shout themselves horse as they send the prey towards the captors it’s quite the opposite the deer are being captured to repopulate the French and European forests [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] trapping has taken place two to three times a year since 1947 when Shambo became a national reserve for wild forer 4,500 deer have been caught and released [Applause] elsewhere 60% of the French deer population have shambor in blood the system also serves as a way of managing the park deer population a other than these highly regulated trapping operations shambor is left entirely to Nature it is an ecosystem that works like any other it produces removes and transforms animals and plants in an unchanging cycle any corpses must be eliminated buzzards and crows take on the role of Scavenging as the Winter perseveres Robins take advantage of any little extras they peck on the fat from the rotting corpses to help them endure the winter cold what happened to this Bo it’s possible that he died of natural causes or in a fight this is more common than it’s thought rutting season is punctuated by figh in adult males live in solitude apart from when they make their bid to conquer females several females in fact since they live together if they’re covered the same company then two males are obliged to fight it starts as play but can degenerate into brutal [Music] confrontation for dear winter is a season of past loves males start to group together and prepare for the next rutting season they do this by shedding the antlers yes each year This Magnificent attribute of veril falls to the [Music] ground antlers are formed in a branch-like structure that that grows outwards from the skull the adult deer has between 8 and 18 horns sometimes more the number has nothing to do with age each antler is unique and measures around 70 cm and weighs 2 to 5 kilos it’s late February and the oldest of the deer are beginning to shed the antlers not necessarily at the same time this metamorphosis destabilizes the deer physically and because their role in the hierarchy shifts as the weeks pass it becomes impossible to tell the difference between The Young and the old the dominant and the dominant ated the deer become Anonymous new antlers start to grow from two pedicles that protrude from the skull regrowth takes about 4 months the new antlers have usually grown by July they are then ready for rutting season [Music]